EVE Fanfest 2017: Hands-on with competitive VR sports game Sparc

At the end of February, CCP Games announced a new game that has nothing to do with EVE Online or even the EVE IP. Named Sparc, the new VR game is being pitched as a virtual sport environment with competitive online gameplay and an online social space. It has the aesthetic of the Tron-style cyberspace world that movies promised us throughout the 80s, and uses motion controls to deliver full-body VR gameplay. Even the social space will have a bit of an 80s arcade vibe, with players able to gather around and watch others compete and challenge the reigning champion to a match.

Anyone who’s been to EVE Fanfest in recent years will recognise Sparc immediately. The game made its public debut as Disc Arena in Fanfest 2015’s VR Labs demo section alongside three other VR experiments, and made a re-appearance the following year with motion controls as Project Arena. Just as Project Nemesis became the release title Gunjack, this game has now graduated into a full production title with its own development team and budget. Sparc is due for release at some point in 2017 on Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and PlayStation VR, and we managed to get some hands-on time with an early version at this year’s Fanfest.

Read on for a brief account of my experiences with Sparc and opinions on it from the press-only hands-on demos at EVE Fanfest 2017.

How exactly does sparc play?

The core gameplay of sparc involves two players standing on platforms at either side of a hallway hurling energy balls at each other, though it’s a lot more tactical than it sounds. Each player can only have one ball in play at a time and also has a shield that can block or deflect the enemy’s ball, and your own rebounded ball is just as deadly as the enemy’s. The shield also breaks after it deflects a shot and only recharges when you pick up your own ball again, so you’re encouraged to catch your own deflected or rebounded shots to regenerate your shield. We played on a novice difficulty setting that also allowed us to punch the enemy ball for a free deflection rather than dodging with your body, though you still had to be pretty accurate to pull it off.

The physics of the game feels much tighter than the old Project Arena, and the throws felt more predictable. This is probably partly due to switching from a throwing disc model to a spherical ball, as even in Project Arena the disc was actually using physics for a ball under the hood. The velocity and angle of a throw depends naturally on the movement arc you make and when you release the trigger, and you can even put spin on the ball or deflect an enemy’s shot in a particular direction. The balls ricochet off the walls with a satisfying thunk, and they’re destroyed on contact with the back wall so you never have to turn right around to defend your rear, which is good for tethered VR.

Feeling your virtual self

Anyone who’s followed my EVE work over the years will know that I can be pretty critical of game design problems, but I can safely say that CCP has hit the nail on the head with the feel of Sparc. Holding the Oculus or Vive controllers in a grip stance feels almost like you’re putting on a pair of virtual boxing gloves, and the in-game representation of your gloved hands maintain a solid one-to-one relation to your own movements. The fact that they respond like this and are held in the same grip you have the controller in is enough to trick your brain into thinking that these are your real hands, which is a little spooky at first but incredibly immersive.

When you see your character in the mirror during the calibration test, everything from the body and hands to the arms and head appear to move just as you do (an impressive accomplishment given the limited data it’s working with), and you can see your opponent’s movements as clear as day. There’s a moment before the match where you and your opponent have to reach out and bump fists as a sign of sportsmanship, and I caught myself waving to my opponent and watching him psych himself up for battle, but it’s not just an immersive visual gimmick.

Part of the game’s strategy is in reading your opponents movements and even misdirecting them by pretending to throw one way and then quickly throwing another. There was an amazing moment in a match I was spectating when someone quickly passed the ball from one hand into the other and threw an unexpected left-hander to score a hit. As a real world spectator cheering next to the demo station at that moment and waiting for my chance to take someone on, I began to see the appeal that Sparc’s virtual social space could bring to the game.

What’s the verdict?

Sparc legitimately has the potential to become the Wii Sports of VR, a collection of competitive activities transmitted via the internet and experienced in VR but played in real space with real athletic competition. The game’s tagline of “Virtual Sport, Real Competition” makes a hell of a lot of sense in that respect, and it’s something I didn’t fully appreciate until I saw my opponent psyching himself up in his serious throwing stance and reacting in frustration when hit just like in a real life sport.

I’ve often complained that VR has no killer app, no must-have game that absolutely needs VR to work, but I think Sparc might be it. With the way it uses motion controls and represents the opponent’s real body in a virtual environment, this is the first thing that has truly tempted me to invest in roomscale VR for gaming. What I would hope to see now is more games being planned for this virtual sports hall, some kind of official tournament system, and perhaps even a real e-sports tournament.

Massively Overpowered is on the ground in Reykjavik, Iceland, for EVE Fanfest 2017, bringing you expert coverage from EVE, Valkyrie, Gunjack, and everything else CCP has up its sleeve!

Disclosure: In accordance with Massively OP’s ethics policy, we must disclose that CCP paid for our writer’s travel to and accommodation at this event. CCP has neither requested nor been granted any control or influence over our coverage of the event. For the record, I wiped the floor with my opponent 12-0 :D

All we know so far is that it will be released for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and PlayStation VR.

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2 years ago

Reader

Arktouros

It’s cool that you got to have some fun with the Vive and/or Rift! I can’t speak for the Rift, but the tracking is amazing on the Vive for sure. It really does make you feel like you’re there (presence) cause everything is tracked 1:1 and it really is surprising how much they can approximate from just 3 tracking objects.

I dunno about that whole killer app claim, there’s been quite a few games with a similar concept and a few of them have been pretty high quality. We’ll see what else they got games wise. Personally I don’t think we’re going to start seeing real killer apps till 2018 or so with some really good and solid titles coming out in 2017.

The real shame of it is EVE would be a perfect game to play with VR. Standing in VR with the game interface all around you and being able to interact with it by touch would be simplistic enough to understand and the game is slow enough to not be punishing. Or hell you could even do a “captain chair” style setup with menus attached to each controller similar to Tilt Brush and go crazy from there. Either way would be amazingly cool but I could just imagine the outcry for designing an update for such a niche device lol…

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2 years ago

Author

Brendan Drain

A couple of us got the opportunity to play on both rift and vive, so we could compare them. The Oculus Rift players overwhelmingly won their matches, possibly because the Vive controllers are heavier and so it’s harder to safely throw a quick pitch.

People also said that the whole psychological effect of realising the virtual hands are yours didn’t really happen with Vive due to the different grips. The Oculus controllers feel more integrated into your closed hand like putting on a boxing glove or knuckle duster, while the Vive controller feels like holding a large tool in your hand. The new smaller controller designed specifically for gaming demo’d in October 2016 will probably be the target for Sparc.

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2 years ago

Reader

Melissa McDonald

Oculus kind of nailed the hand controllers I think. Vive kind of nailed room presence. At these price points I gotta wait for 2.0 hardware. It will be much improved. The Vive was pretty cool, but I felt like a bloomin’ lobster. Large claws for hands, large carapace on my head, and I felt it down my spine (HDMI cable). If anything, it made me love my cordless and lighter Gear VR that much more, and it gives a pretty darn credible experience and even has higher resolution. But it gets hot way too fast due to graphics and you feel it get warm an inch from your face. That’ll get better. I’m convinced wireless is essential to VR though. Tethered ruins it.

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2 years ago

Author

Brendan Drain

Agreed, the kind of VR I ultimately want to see is lightweight, untethered, and streams from a nearby gaming PC. A cable ruins action gameplay and limits what you can do in roomscale VR, and a heavy or hot headset due to there being so much done in the device itself is unneccessary.

We’ll get there eventually I think, there’s so much money invested in VR now that it will move forward no matter what. The oculus controllers nailed it though, and the smaller vive controllers sound pretty amazing but I haven’t tried them yet.

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2 years ago

Reader

BalsBigBrother

Perhaps if it was 1982 and I had just got home from watching Tron at the cinema I might be a little more excited for this but sadly it isn’t and I am not, excited I mean.

Good for you if you had fun though and if it works for you have at it. It is going to take a bit more than this for me to get excited or even just mildly interested in VR as a gamer. /shrugs

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2 years ago

Reader

Davide Moriello

it’s full of complete VR games, for gamer. From online fps (with many people online) to adventure games..

I don’t understand how non-vr gamers think that we (vr gamer) play only “experience” games or sport games in vr…

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2 years ago

Reader

BalsBigBrother

Um you may have noticed the words me and I liberally sprinkled throughout my comment.

I have not seen anything compelling enough for me to want VR at this point. Not this, nor the OrbusVR thing from yesterday or the other games that have featured here or I have seen elsewhere such as twitch etc.

I haven’t seen anything that works for me yet of any type or gets me excited for VR. If you have good and as i said in my original comment have at it.

Tldr, I am only speaking for myself i don’t think anything about other gamers VR or otherwise I don’t know you.

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2 years ago

Reader

Davide Moriello

I was thinking the same as you, reading and watching other experiences was a big big meh, nothing really compelling and I was like “well, you see in 3d and you can watch around, what is special about this?”.

I have tried this, with games that seemed meh on youtube vdeos (like onward, the online tactic fps) and was amazed about everything. now every day I play something it’s a big “WOW” and playing multiplayer games in vr is an amazing experience, nothing to do with flat games.

When someone is touching your chest or giving you hand you can “feel” it. Killing other players in vr, lied down in your camera taking cover is the best gaming experience I had.

That there are adventure games, you are in beautifull worlds discovering, making puzzle or anything. Your brain really think that you are in this world, you can litterally walk in a world that is outside your room, you can touch, feel and grab objects. Sound is in 3d, so everything you hear is from the real direction.

Scale room is something to try, I really don’t wanted it and was not able to understand it till I tried it.

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2 years ago

Reader

Melissa McDonald

Well stated. I feel as though I might as well be Morpheus sometimes, when I tell skeptical people that there aren’t really any words I can use that can make them understand like putting on a visor can. “unfortunately no one can be told what the matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.” And yes, there is absolutely nothing like the sense of correct scale and 3D and presence in a VR app compared to looking at a ‘3d game’ on a flat screen. The two experiences are nothing alike. I learned my first evening how quickly your mind accepts virtual reality as reality. You instinctively want to touch things you see, and disappointed if you can’t. You bump into something and laugh as you realize the “real” reality is still there, but you had left it far behind for a few minutes…